I can't remember the last time an upcoming meeting between an owner and player drew so much attention but the anticipated gathering between quarterback Peyton Manning and Colts owner Jim Irsay has the NFL, and in some ways all of sports, slightly holding its breath.

One league source said the two might finally have a sit-down this week to talk. That's not definite but it seems likely. One thing that's become clear is the two men don't want another circus. Both sides don't want to meet, I'm told, the week of the combine and thus have Manning news dominate the way it did Super Bowl week.

It remains possible the two men wait until after the combine but the feeling seems to be they want to get the meeting over with sooner than later. It's highly likely they meet in secret and no one finds out until afterwards.

Irsay wrote on his Twitter account Friday, speaking of last week: "Things r quiet this week n weekend, getting ready for NFL Combine, completing coaching staff, analyzing roster. There's no news on Peyton."

My guess -- everyone in football's guess -- is that the two men will basically say their goodbyes. No one, and I mean no one, expects Manning back. Stranger things have happened but it appears almost certain the meeting is the first step in the departure of Manning from the Colts. 

I can't remember the last time an upcoming meeting between an owner and player drew so much attention but the anticipated gathering between quarterback Peyton Manning and Colts owner Jim Irsay has the NFL, and in some ways all of sports, slightly holding its breath.

One league source said the two might finally have a sit-down this week to talk. That's not definite but it seems likely. One thing that's become clear is the two men don't want another circus. Both sides don't want to meet, I'm told, the week of the combine and thus have Manning news dominate the way it did Super Bowl week.

It remains possible the two men wait until after the combine but thye feeling seems to be they want to get the meeting over with sooner than later.

Irsay wrote on his Twitter account Friday, speaking of last week: "Things r quiet this week n weekend, getting ready for NFL Combine, completing coaching staff, analyzing roster. There's no news on Peyton."

My guess -- everyone in football's guess -- is that the two men will basically say their goodbyes. No one, and I mean no one, expects Manning back. Stranger things have happened but it appears almost certain the meeting is the first step in the departure of Manning from the Colts. 

INDIANAPOLIS: Everyone seems to have an opinion on if Peyton Manning will be able to physically recover from his neck injury and return to football. Manning teammate, Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne, is no different.

"I think his chances of returning to football are 50-50," said Wayne. "He had some pretty serious surgeries so I'm just not so certain. The one thing about Peyton though is if anyone can come back from this, he can. He works so hard at everything and this is no different. He's a tough guy but we're talking about the neck and that's why I'm not so certain but again if anyone can, he can. He's almost superhuman."

Wayne quickly added, "Now, where he might play, I don't know. That's the question. I hope it works out where he stays with the Colts but even with a great player like Peyton it's a business. Even Peyton isn't immune from the business part of football so it wouldn't shock any of us on the team that if he did play next year, it was somewhere else, because that's the nature of football."

Wayne gave an interesting glimpse in what it's like to be a Colts player these days in a football nation obsessed with Manning’s health.

"Everywhere I go people say to me, 'Please keep Peyton," said Wayne, who is working with Xbox Kinect this week. "I'm not Jim Irsay. It's not my team. Everyone wants Peyton to stay but like I said, it's a business."

"The only good thing about last season was that we never quit. I hated to see our coaching staff get fired. I was close to a lot of those guys and sometimes the media portrayed it as Peyton threw the ball to himself, caught it, snapped the ball, did everything and the rest of us were just nobodies. But we fought. I was proud that we never quit."

“With Griffin and Luck and the way it’s shaping up at the top of the draft — could very likely go one and two like with Peyton and Ryan Leaf,” Irsay said. “It’s most likely one of those quarterbacks that you really feel is the best player in the draft, and where we’re at moving forward you can’t pass that up. I don’t think anyone would expect that.”

It all sounds very logical and that's what Irsay may indeed be planning but it's rare for an owner or GM to say: this is what we're going to do. In fact, it almost never happens.

So is Irsay using ESPN to help him bluff the league? Or using the network to help boost potential trade value? Or is Irsay sincere?

If you've ever read Irsay on Twitter you know he's a different sort of dude so some of this is not exactly out of his purview.

But it's still odd for an owner to declare their intentions this early which leads me to believe there is a tad bit of bluffitude going on here.

The Colts don't know about Manning's health and Irsay's logic is sound but...

This still reeks of a set up.